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Snoring can sound comical, but it isn’t funny being kept awake night after night and it can put a strain on your health and your relationship. It is very difficult to feel loving towards someone who keeps you awake all night while they are enjoying blissful sleep.

There are two aspects to how snoring can affect sleep: one is from the perspective of the snorer and one is their unlucky bed companion. Sometimes the snorer will wake themselves up, or suffer from sore throats. Often, however, the snorer is completely unaware of the problem. Not-so their partner.

Snoring can be defined as a coarse sound made by vibrations of the soft palate and other tissue in the mouth, nose & throat (upper airway). It is caused by turbulence inside the airway as you breathe.

If you are the snorer, there can be a number of physical reasons which are causing your snoring. Often it is exacerbated by alcohol, weight, smoking or medication. Other physical causes of snoring can vary from mispositioned jaw, blocked sinuses, allergies, deviated septum, polyps, the size or position of the tongue, or narrow airways.

Often, just changing your sleep position and/or losing weight will help to resolve the problem. Other remedies include stopping smoking, reducing your alcohol intake and treating allergies. Occasionally the problem can be rectified, with either a mouth guard, or through surgery, depending on the cause of the snoring.

If your partner snores and you find yourself staring at the ceiling night after night thinking murderous thoughts, the issue is more around your focus. I remember living under a flight path for several years. Planes, including Concorde, would fly over every 3 minutes and we thought we would go crazy. In time, we learned how to tune out and pause before resuming our conversation like nothing had happened. You have also probably had the experience where you have a headache or a toothache, but some good news or a funny program on the TV, makes you forget all about it. These are all examples of changing focus.

So, instead of waiting for the snoring to start – which makes you hyper-sensitive to it – focus your attention on something else. Self-hypnosis is a terrific way of doing this. Self-hypnosis can be used simply to relax, or to get you to focus on something else – a change you want to make perhaps. You might also want to think about having hypnotherapy with a professional who can help you to not notice the snoring so that you can enjoy a restful and restorative sleep. My book "An Inside Job" teaches you how to do this for yourself simply and effectively and even has a CD to guide your self-hypnosis practice. Another option is to listen to a hypnosis recording such as Sleep Well which will ease you into relaxing sleep.

Depression feels like a hopeless place that you are trapped in. It can feel as though the life has been sucked out of you. Whether you are able to hide your depression from the outside world or not, you can’t hide it from yourself and, if not dealt with soon, can get worse as each day passes.

There are a number of symptoms which are used to diagnose depression. If you have five or more on this list and at least one from the top two for two weeks, it is a sign that you may be depressed:

Depressed mood most of the time

Loss of pleasure or interest in things you would normally enjoy

Loss of energy

Eating more or less than usual

Difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much

Poor concentration

Restlessness or lethargy

Feelings of worthlessness

Guilt

Hopelessness

Withdrawal from relationships

Suicidal thoughts

If you are suffering from suicidal thoughts or the symptoms are strong, you need to get medical help immediately. Otherwise, there is plenty you can do to help yourself. Depression can be caused by several factors:

Your thoughts (which create feelings). If you are stuck in a negative thinking spiral then practicing positive thinking, as explained in the book Think Positive, Feel Good can make a huge difference to you.

Biochemical – this is the effect of what’s happening in your body. Depression can be caused by malnutrition, absorption issues (where you are eating well but your body is not absorbing the nutrients effectively), hormonal imbalance and a lack of the feel good chemicals such as serotonin. The Asyra Pro is a bioresonence screening technology which can help to determine where there is imbalance and create balance for you. A session will include a nutritional assessment to see what your body needs to get back into balance.

Lifestyle – depression can be triggered by an incident or a general feeling of overwhelm where you simply don’t feel in control any more. It is often a result of other emotions which aren’t addressed such as anger, sadness, boredom, guilt, loneliness, stress and frustration. When you acknowledge and deal with these emotions in a positive way, depression can be averted or diminished. If you feel this may be you, why not book a consultation to see what can be done to help you? An initial telephone consultation is free of charge and I can be reached on 0845 130 0854.

Spiritual – sometimes depression can be caused by a lack of purpose or meaning in your life. If you feel that life is just the same-old-same-old, or that there is something missing, then finding some meaning can make all the difference. This can be difficult to do on your own, especially if you are depressed, but there are tools and techniques in my book 21 Ways and 21 Days to the Life You Want. Or working together may help you get there more quickly.

It certainly doesn’t help to have a loved one say “pull yourself together”. But it can help to see a professional who can determine the cause and help you through it so you can start to enjoy life again. Do call for a free telephone consultation on 0345 130 0854. You don’t have to go through this alone.

Tricia Woolfreyis an integrative therapist, an advanced clinical hypnotherapist, master practitioner in NLP, nutritionist and author, and utilises bioenergetics to help you be the best you can be. She has practices in Surrey and Harley Street, London. She can be reached on 0345 130 0854www.yourempoweredself.co.uk.

When I was a child I accidentally discovered a way to contemplate infinity using only two mirrors, one handheld and one on the wall.

I was wondering what would happen if I looked at a mirror reflected in another mirror. I played around and then suddenly there was a moment when an endless tunnel of reflected mirrors opened up, a window into infinity.

In my excitement, I took my father's tripod and mounted the handheld mirror onto it, trying to make it as still as possible to make the tunnel as deep as possible.

As the chain of reflections fused into a dark vanishing point in the "distance", I felt that this dark point was a piece of the same infinity that I saw when I looked at sky at night.

I repeated this experiment often. It became one of the visual meditations that I loved then and still love to this day, like staring into an open fire, star gazing, watching the sun set, waves rolling onto the shore, snow flakes floating to the ground.

Later, when I started to meditate, I found the same sense of infinity behind closed eyelids in an inner space that deepened and expanded with time.

Go and explore this inner space in yourself, have glimpses of your own infinity! Unlike the virtual space between facing mirrors, your inner space is full of life, light and spirit.

Michael Kaufmann is a Meditation Teacher, a Master & Teacher of Reiki Healing, a Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Time Line Therapy™ and an Ericksonian Hypnotherapist with many years of clinical experience. He has practices in the City of London and in Canterbury, Kent. He can be reached via www.reiki-meditation.co.uk.

If you’ve not had a course of reflexology treatments you’d be forgiven for thinking that it is simply a relaxing foot massage. Of course it is a relaxing foot massage, but it is also much, much more than that. It is a therapy which can have a profound influence on your health and well-being, both physical and emotional.

Reflexology is based on a system of reflex points, or areas, on the feet which correspond with the organs and systems in your body. These reflex points are a map, if you like, to the rest of your body. A trained reflexologist will work over each of these reflex areas using different techniques – thumb walking, pinpointing, flexing, massaging – to stimulate the area. Their sensitive fingers will pick up subtle differences in the reflex areas and they may linger over a spot where they detect an imbalance. And all of this is done whilst you just sit back and relax, enjoying the sensations.

After a single session, some customers will feel deeply relaxed, will probably sleep better and feel calmer for a few days. Some will feel energised and raring to go, as if their batteries have been recharged.

But it’s with the regular sessions that I have seen real improvements in the well-being of people. My customers find that it helps them in many ways:

Managing and easing the pain of their arthritis*

To reduce feelings of anxiety and has helped rebuild confidence

They are less troubled by insomnia

As a nurturing, supportive, calming therapy, it is helping a customer who is grieving after their spouse passed away

Feelings of stress were lowered and my customer become pregnant when she had previously found it difficult to conceive

Feel calmer and healthier

One customer is eating more healthily, her periods are starting to return and she is hopeful that she will be pregnant soon

Stress-related digestive problems disappeared when she was having regular sessions

A busy business women found she did her most creative during treatments, enabling her to grow her business

However, you don’t need to have a particular condition to enjoy the benefits of reflexology. Regular treatments will help you relax, improve mood, help sleep, relieve tension and improve a sense of well-being. Reflexology is a gentle, deeply relaxing and non-invasive therapy and is suitable for people of all ages. And it is important that we look after ourselves – if we don’t then how can we look after others?

Please note that reflexology cannot cure or diagnose anything, and it should not be used instead of conventional health care – always consult your GP or health professional for medical attention or advice.

*Reflexology is not suitable if you have arthritis in your feet or ankles.

About Julia McPherson

Julia is a complementary therapist, specialising in reflexology to help people find balance and wellbeing. She offers a home visiting service for people in and around Sunbury on Thames, Walton on Thames, Hersham, Weybridge and Cobham.

The Bowen Technique is a complementary therapy that works over muscles, fascia, ligaments, tendons, nerves and the skeleton to accelerate healing, realign and balance the body. It has an excellent track record in helping relieve many symptoms. Results can be remarkable, even from the first session.

How does it work?

Gentle, powerful moves send messages deep into the body, penetrating to a cellular level to realign and balance the body. Pauses allow the body time to respond to the work, begin the healing process and re-orient to a previously healthy state. Bowen moves treat the body as a whole or can target a specific problem. A Bowen treatment will enhance and complement other medical treatments, and conditions other than those being treated are often resolved, whether structural, physiological or emotional.

What’s it like?

Each Bowen therapy session varies according to the particular problems of the client. By focusing on the lower and mid back and legs, the upper back, shoulders and the neck, a sense of wellbeing can be achieved, helping relaxation, aiding sleep – helping to remove everyday stress and anxiety that can make us feel under-par or prevent us functioning at our optimum. The Bowen moves are light and very precise. Its effects go on working for days following treatment and can be long lasting. For this reason it is better to wait a week either side of having other manual therapy. The moves may be given through light clothing or on the skin and can assist recovery from many conditions from traumatic injury to chronic illness, depending on each individual’s capacity to heal. It is considered suitable for everyone from pregnant women to new-born babies, the frail and the elderly. People are amazed at the sensations and results.

Feeling good is your birthright. But it isn’t always easy when there is so much doom and gloom in the media, so many demands placed upon you and with little time to think about your wellbeing. We can all feel a little low sometimes, but if you are feeling low more than seems natural, you may be low in serotonin.

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter – a chemical messenger in the body communicating signals between neurons and cells – and is good for:

Mood stability

Self-esteem

Impulse-control

Anxiety reduction

Promoting restful sleep

Pain control

Overcoming negativity

Feelings of wellbeing

There are numerous things you can do to boost serotonin. Some people do this synthetically through anti-depressants but these don’t always work and you can become addicted to them. Or you can do this naturally with the following healthy tips:

Eat protein with each meal

Have a small jacket potato (with the skin) before you go to bed – it’s OK to have a little butter with it too. (Read Potatoes, Not Prozac for more information on this).

Reduce serotonin leaches such as wheat and rye bread.

Enjoy some sunlight every day (even if it is a grey day, you can benefit from the sun’s rays).

Practice positive thinking. It’s good to start your day with a positive focus too – what you are looking forward to in your day for example. Read Think Positive, Feel Good for excellent help in this area.

Moderate aerobic exercise (too much can have the opposite effect). Exercise such as aerobics, running and cycling are particularly good. If you aren’t in the mood for exercise, it could be a sign of low serotonin.

Meat

Seeds

Dairy

If you follow this 10-step plan, you should find that you enjoy a more positive mood, better sleep a greater sense of wellbeing without the negative side effects of anti-depressants. You know it makes sense.